When thinking about blogging I feel torn. In one respect I think that blogging is valuable. For example at the place that I work over the summer I am quite close to one of the other employees and she has three super cute kids who she blogs about to keep everyone updated. She has posted pictures, videos, and comments about what is going in their lives. I think this is very valuable especially since they have family members that live all around the United States. I also think that blogging can be valuable in classroom to give kids their own voice & page to put it on. But I do feel like blogging can be frusterating in the idea that you aren't sure who is looking at it, reading it, or making judgements based on your blog. I like the idea of it being a way to share your voice but also think that is creates a forum for people to say things they wouldn't say when speaking face to face with other people. It seems easy to say anything on your blog but it's not always so easy to say things in front of others. This takes some of the personal contact out of communicating. But in another sense it is also helpful because people aren't necessarily worried about others so they give their honest opinion. I am really just discovering all the uses of blogs so I think for me it's a constant learning process.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Insider/ Outsider Debate
A question I would like to consider would be how could you tell an individual they are or are not an insider? What are the qualifications?
Insider/ Outsider Debate
Insider/ Outsider
Before reading any of the articles I had the thought, after reading some children's literature books that inaccurately described a particular culture, that only an insider should write about their particular culture. Insider being someone of that culture. But after reading the first article by Patrick Shannon my idea of insider got pushed. He defines culture as, "a design for living- the ways of acting, believing, and valuing; it's a shared set of ideas, behaviors, discourses, and attitudes which internally and externally define a social group." So then my thought began to wander a bit... if a culture can be gender and I write a book about being female, my perspective of being female could be totally different than someone else's who may also be female. One is not necessarily right or wrong, they are just different. And attempting to have all of those opinions in one classroom seems to be impossible. So first and foremost I think it is important to explain to students that although two people may be a part of the same culture they may have totally different lifestyles or ideas.
As he went on to talk about different books that were "multicultural literature" he described how many individuals were able to connect on some level, multiculturalism being a part of all of us and seeing that although we may not see ourselves as part of one culture there may be a subculture within that that we do belong to. For example, I am not part of the African American culture but a female African American writer who talks about being teased from boys would be relatable to many girls. Therefore her and I would share one culture but not another. I feel that these connections are very important to make because they bridge that gap of thinking that since we are all from different cultures we must be different. When the fact of the matter is we are bound to have at least one similarity with many individuals, whether it be religion, gender, or food preference.
Reading the other articles I found myself not being able to make a decision about whether or not I thought insiders should only write about their culture. I think insider is hard to define and that is where my undecisiveness begins. I think what I am most concerned about is accuracy. I understand that everyone has different perspectives which is to be celebrated but when sharing non-fiction & fiction pieces about cultures it is important to distinguish the facts so that students are able to have correct knowledge. I think as long as the author indicates at the beginning of the story it's realtion to that culture than that should be sufficient, but I think it is the reader's right to know & understand how the writer is connected to that culture and then it is up to the reader to decide whether or not they want to engage in the book.
Before reading any of the articles I had the thought, after reading some children's literature books that inaccurately described a particular culture, that only an insider should write about their particular culture. Insider being someone of that culture. But after reading the first article by Patrick Shannon my idea of insider got pushed. He defines culture as, "a design for living- the ways of acting, believing, and valuing; it's a shared set of ideas, behaviors, discourses, and attitudes which internally and externally define a social group." So then my thought began to wander a bit... if a culture can be gender and I write a book about being female, my perspective of being female could be totally different than someone else's who may also be female. One is not necessarily right or wrong, they are just different. And attempting to have all of those opinions in one classroom seems to be impossible. So first and foremost I think it is important to explain to students that although two people may be a part of the same culture they may have totally different lifestyles or ideas.
As he went on to talk about different books that were "multicultural literature" he described how many individuals were able to connect on some level, multiculturalism being a part of all of us and seeing that although we may not see ourselves as part of one culture there may be a subculture within that that we do belong to. For example, I am not part of the African American culture but a female African American writer who talks about being teased from boys would be relatable to many girls. Therefore her and I would share one culture but not another. I feel that these connections are very important to make because they bridge that gap of thinking that since we are all from different cultures we must be different. When the fact of the matter is we are bound to have at least one similarity with many individuals, whether it be religion, gender, or food preference.
Reading the other articles I found myself not being able to make a decision about whether or not I thought insiders should only write about their culture. I think insider is hard to define and that is where my undecisiveness begins. I think what I am most concerned about is accuracy. I understand that everyone has different perspectives which is to be celebrated but when sharing non-fiction & fiction pieces about cultures it is important to distinguish the facts so that students are able to have correct knowledge. I think as long as the author indicates at the beginning of the story it's realtion to that culture than that should be sufficient, but I think it is the reader's right to know & understand how the writer is connected to that culture and then it is up to the reader to decide whether or not they want to engage in the book.
TE 448
In Te 448 this week I presented on the book titled The Heart of A Chief by Joseph Bruchac. Although I was quite nervous about presenting I thought it went very well. As I listened to my peers discuss my question I learned a lot about the schools they went to and the ideas that that had given them on how to celebrate diverse cultures in the classroom. It made me think if the author had ideas about how this sort of teaching strategy would look in the classroom or what would make it authentic celebration rather than just surface level. How do you get your students to want to learn & be interested in learning about their classmate's culture? When coming up with my question I was curious to see if I was taking the text in a different way then my classmates, discussing as group I saw that everyone had different interpretations and even on sentence was causing a group discussion about what it meant and how it was to be understood. It is on page 54 of the text, " Pizza has given up on being a Penacook. Be a Chief instead of being an Indian." Hearing everyone's interpretation made me realize the importance of not answering the question in my paper or my discussion. Just like when teachers are presenting to students, if you answer the question you are only giving them one way to think about the answer rather than seeing their ideas.
I enjoyed the discussion and thought it was an interesting way to share ideas about the book.
I enjoyed the discussion and thought it was an interesting way to share ideas about the book.
Monday, September 1, 2008
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